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Norse Mythology 2
Norse Mythology
2
Norse Mythology
in its form today comes down to us mainly from the Icelandic Eddas and sagas which
were written down centuries after the Christianisation took hold in
the north. There has been vast research trying to discern the true
ancient religion as it was practiced by the people of the Scandinavian
countries. This is opposed to the representation we are given in the written
sources. Norse mythology presents us with a multilayered, often
contradictory, world view with a myriad of parallels in other
mythological systems. It is a playground for the comparative mythology
researcher, rich with elements from Indo-European, Shamanistic, and
other belief systems. It is with this thought that I hope to present
some of the more better researched works of authors in the field of Norse
Mythology. I will also include others of a more controversial nature that
may conflict with varying scholastic views.
I
leave it to the discerning reader to make up their owns minds as to
the validity of the information presented here.
Old English and Its Closest
Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages By Orrin W.
Robinson
Published by Routledge, 1992
ISBN 0415081696, 9780415081696
290 pages
 General
textbooks introducing the Germanic languages are scarce. This work
claims to provide a resource accessible to monolingual English
speakers with a minimal background in linguistics. The task seems
hardly possible, but Robinson accomplishes it and he does so with
flying colours. In his text, which grew out of a Stanford
undergraduate seminar "Introduction to the Germanic Languages,"
Robinson takes a philological approach, supplementing his primary
linguistic discussion with archaeological, historical, and literary
material. As a result the reader is introduced to the Germanic
languages within a cultural context that considers language change
and development not only vertically down the Stammbaum, but also
horizontally through contact with other languages. Robinson's review
of previous scholarship is clear and provides the beginner with a
good taste of the many puzzles involved in historical linguistics.
He does not shy away from pointing out the cruces in dealing with
starred forms and dead languages and is himself very cautious in his
statements and presentation of the material. So for example his
warning on page 30 that "bishop Wulfila should not be held
responsible" for a Gothic sentence Robinson has fabricated in order
to demonstrate the function of cases.
Chapter one serves as an introduction to the Germanic language
family and to the methods and terminology of comparative
linguistics. With his intended reader in mind, Robinson uses Modem
English as a springboard and begins by pointing out obvious
similarities between it and German. After making clear
correspondences in the modern reflexes, he then movies back in time
and presents one by one the questions involved in reconstructing the
parent language Germanic. The examples used here, as well as
elsewhere in the book, are straightforward and obviously
well-thought out and tested in class. The second chapter gives a
very simplified review of phonological and morphological terms that
are needed to understand the criteria that win later be used in
discussing the relationships among the various Germanic languages.
Students are initiated into the differences between orthographic and
phonetic values and into the concepts of case, noun stem, agreement,
adjective declension, conjugation, voice, and mood.
Each of the subsequent seven chapters is devoted to one of the
Germanic languages, beginning with Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old
English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian, and finally Old High
German. All the chapters have a similar organization allowing for
easy cross-referencing. Each begins with a brief history of the
people who spoke the language and a map depicting their whereabouts
and wanderings. This is followed by a short discussion of the major
texts and literary genres preserved in the language. Next come two
reading--one biblical (the parable of the Sower and the Seed is used
if possible, to facilitate linguistic comparison) and one
representative of the literature (for Old Norse we find an excerpt
from Snorri's Edda). In the right hand margin of each reading,
Robinson supplies English, and at times German, cognates to words
found in the text, which ease the novice into a first reading and
help him/her to find the language less forbidding. Appended to the
readings is an extended glossary that gives modern English
equivalents and grammatical characterizations, thus allowing for a
closer second reading. As a last resort, the author also provides a
word-by-word crib for each reading in an appendix at the end of the
book.
The readings are followed up with a brief description of the
orthography, pronunciation, and grammar of the language. The grammar
is divided up into sections on phonology and morphology covering
only nouns, pronouns and verbs. Within each of these subdivisions,
characteristics specific to the language under discussion as well as
those that relate it to other Germanic languages are summarized.
These shared characteristics are reviewed and synthesized in the
final chapter which discusses the various theories--from Wrede to
Venemann--that have been proposed for grouping the Germanic language
family.
All seven core chapters conclude with a short discussion of a topic
pertinent to the study of Germanic philology in general (and best
exemplified by the language covered in that chapter). In conjunction
with the Gothic chapter, Robinson takes up the difficulties of
assigning sounds to written letters and draws upon the example of
the various interpretations for the Gothic letters < ai > and < au
>.
The Old Norse chapter includes a discussion of runes;
the Old Saxon chapter deals with Germanic verse forms; the Old
English chapter covers Germanic syntax and introduces the concept of
language typology. In the Old Frisian chapter the problems of
comparing languages not chronologically parallel are discussed. In
the Old Low Franconian chapter, Robinson deals with the question of
manuscript transmission and the problems surrounding the
Wachtendonck Codex. Finally the Old High German chapter concentrates
on the coexistence of numerous dialects within one language and
includes a lucid review of the Second Consonant Shift. Each chapter
contains a short bibliography for further reading. At the very end
of the book the bibliographies are combined and repeated.
In general, Robinson's text is pedagogically sound and definitely
recommended either on the undergraduate level or in an introductory
class for graduate students filling a linguistics requirement. This
text could easily be used in an English, Scandinavian or German
department and supplemented with additional material more
specifically geared toward the target "branch" on the Stammbaum.
Most students who take such a course will already have had some
exposure to linguistics and or a foreign language. For them the
overly simplified grammar review in chapter two may be superfluous.
On the other hand, precisely because it is so general, the book can
easily be tailored to various audiences; it can be used in toto with
beginners and selectively together with other materials with more
advanced students. The latter may find J. Voyles's new study, Early
Germanic Grammar. Pre-, Proto-, and Post-Germanic Languages (San
Diego: Academic Press, 1992) more useful or want to combine the two
along with other outside reading. Although interest in Germanic
philology has declined in recent years, Robinson's book demonstrates
that the philological approach, which encompasses a comparative
study of linguistics, archaeology, history, and literature, is
exciting and not only lends itself to teaching the Germanic
languages but to investigating them as well.
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